The present invention relates to tool to assist a user in moving items and, more particularly, to hand truck that converts to a panel cars and several other types of carts.
The use of a wheeled cart, by one person, to transport a large variety of different sized and shaped objects, such as long lumber, plywood panels, mattresses, doors, windows, garment bags, large boxes, crates or furniture through doorways or down narrow hallways, requires the use of several different types of wheeled carts, such as a hand truck, a panel cart, a hand cart, a hotel cart or a dolly. For most users, it would be impractical because of the expense and/or storage space required to own three or four carts. A standard hand truck or multi-use cart cannot be converted into a panel cart, most often used at building supply stores, to carry plywood, doors and long lumber. No existing hand truck can be converted into a panel cart as well as a utility cart, a tray-cart, a hotel cart and a lumber cart.
Since plywood panels, mattresses, doors, windows and similar items must be turned on their edge to be transported through doorways, through gate openings or down narrow hallways, a standard hand truck will not work for that purpose. Loading several sheets of plywood on a standard hand truck is only possible by placing the load across the tongue and perpendicular to the direction of travel, making the load too wide to trans port through a standard door. A dolly can haul long objects through a doorway, but it would not work to haul panels, a mattress, or a window on their edge because it has no center support to lean the items against. Laying items flat on a dolly would again make the load too wide. The panel cart has a center support system to allow material to be stood up on its edge and is therefore the only type of cart to perform these functions.
As can be seen, there is a need for a device for transporting different types of items, where the device can be converted from one type of transport to another as needed, depending on the items to be transported.